A review by erintby
See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love by Valarie Kaur
5.0
“The future is dark. But what if this darkness is not our tomb, but our womb?”
I absolutely loved this book. I had no idea what or who it was about when I started it, but Valarie Kaur’s story covers so much. Sikh-American communities, 9/11, the anti-war movement, intergenerational trauma, divine rage, hate violence and state violence, self-doubt and love for self, naming white supremacy, reimagining the criminal justice system, healing from sexual assault, the injustice of Guantanamo Bay, the role of faith traditions in social justice movements, connecting with your body, building solidarity, gun violence and the Oak Creek shooting, understanding the circle of listening, breathing through labor. There are hundreds of truths in this book that I would like to incorporate into my own life. And while I wish I took better notes, I needed this message so desperately today that I just couldn’t stop. I will definitely read this again, with a pen and paper for sure.
But here is one quote that gives me hope and helps me feel grounded:
“If we take a linear view of history, then we are sliding backward. But if we see the story of America as one long labor, then we have a different view. Progress during birthing labor is cyclical, not linear. It is a series of expansions and contractions and each turn through the cycle brings us closer to what is being born. I see this pattern through US history. .... The labor is ongoing, the injustice relentless. But each time people organized, each turn through the cycle, opened a little more space for equality and justice. It also created ancestral memory. We carry the memory of movements that came before us. Like the body in labor, we have gained more embodied knowledge about what to do when the crises come, even when the crises are unprecedented. We can still turn to the wisdom of our ancestors for how to labor, to wonder, to grieve, to fight, to rage, to listen, to reimagine, to breathe, and to push, and to find the bravery we need for transition. It is our task to innovate and apply these practices in the new reality we find ourselves in.”
The wisdom in this book is astounding, and it gives me hope and determination to build patterns in my own life for sustainable activism and revolutionary love.
I absolutely loved this book. I had no idea what or who it was about when I started it, but Valarie Kaur’s story covers so much. Sikh-American communities, 9/11, the anti-war movement, intergenerational trauma, divine rage, hate violence and state violence, self-doubt and love for self, naming white supremacy, reimagining the criminal justice system, healing from sexual assault, the injustice of Guantanamo Bay, the role of faith traditions in social justice movements, connecting with your body, building solidarity, gun violence and the Oak Creek shooting, understanding the circle of listening, breathing through labor. There are hundreds of truths in this book that I would like to incorporate into my own life. And while I wish I took better notes, I needed this message so desperately today that I just couldn’t stop. I will definitely read this again, with a pen and paper for sure.
But here is one quote that gives me hope and helps me feel grounded:
“If we take a linear view of history, then we are sliding backward. But if we see the story of America as one long labor, then we have a different view. Progress during birthing labor is cyclical, not linear. It is a series of expansions and contractions and each turn through the cycle brings us closer to what is being born. I see this pattern through US history. .... The labor is ongoing, the injustice relentless. But each time people organized, each turn through the cycle, opened a little more space for equality and justice. It also created ancestral memory. We carry the memory of movements that came before us. Like the body in labor, we have gained more embodied knowledge about what to do when the crises come, even when the crises are unprecedented. We can still turn to the wisdom of our ancestors for how to labor, to wonder, to grieve, to fight, to rage, to listen, to reimagine, to breathe, and to push, and to find the bravery we need for transition. It is our task to innovate and apply these practices in the new reality we find ourselves in.”
The wisdom in this book is astounding, and it gives me hope and determination to build patterns in my own life for sustainable activism and revolutionary love.